Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Doctor in the House (1954)


Dirk Bogarde enters medical school, and through his five years of training, juggles his lessons and horseplay with fellow classmates. A relationship with a nurse further adds to the complications.
            This amusing comedy has no real plot, per say. It mostly consists of vignettes surrounding Bogarde and his three medical school chums. Much of the amusement comes from the contrast between the juvilie activites the students do to pass the time: women chasing, playing rugby, drinking, etc and their very serious classes and studies.
            This was a very fun, sometimes hiloarious film. The acting was top notch, and the medical humor has not aged badly.
            To me, the biggest surprice was Dirk Bogarde. I think of him as a completely serious actor, and with exeption of So Long at the Fair this was the first time that I have seen him play something that was so…well…comic and happy.  And he was great! I especially love his reaction to when he discovers, after falling through the skylight (its complicated), that he has landed in the head nurse’s bedroom. Also amusing was Kenneth More, again an actor who I associate with serious roles, and again someone who pleasantly surprised me with his performace as a medical student who only decides to attempt to graduate by his girlfriend’s threat of going to Sweeden to marry a “real doctor.”
            All of this climaxes in probably the most epic chase involving an ambulance and a stuffed gorilla, and a very amusing final exam segment. Not all of the characters end up graduating, but they all end up in a happy ending.
            My advise? See it, especially if you’ve been to medical school.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

New Video!

The cause for my lack of updates for almost two months! I have been working on the final for my Cinema class this semester. It was supposed to be a "personal narrative project". Therefore, I decided to illustrate my love of movies by using a combination of found footage and audio clips, the latter being used with myself and a friend reenacting scenes from movies.

Hope you enjoy it.


Footage and audio were taken from the following films (in alphabetical order):


Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
The Band Wagon (1953)
The Beggar's Opera (1953)
The Blob (1958)
Body and Soul (1947)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Contraband (1940)
Dark of the Sun (1968)
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Dinner at Eight (1933)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Gun Crazy (1950)
Guys and Dolls (1955)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Horror of Dracula (1958)
It's Love I'm After (1937)
Middle of the Night (1959)
Night and the City (1950)
Of Mice and Men (1939)
Picnic (1955)
Pretty Poison (1968)
Psycho (1960)
The Public Enemy (1931) 
Roaring Twenties (1939)
The Set-Up (1949)
Scarlett Street (1945)
The Spy in Black (1939)
A Star is Born (1937)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Tom, Dick, and Harry (1941)
The Trial (1962)
Warlock (1959)
White Heat (1949)
Winchester '73 (1950)
Winterset (1937)